Forging Elite Fitness

I have been getting a lot of questions about my "sudden" transformation and I thought I would take the time to write about what I've been doing to get to where I am and what my goals are.The tl;dr version is that none of this was "sudden" at all and I've been working my ass off! In June of 2013, I decided that I was going to really focus on virtuosity, doing the common things in my life uncommonly well. I began by really dialing in my diet. I was eating EliteEats, but I made one little change by asking Stefan to cut out all starch, and I limited my carbs to a very low amount throughout the week. On Saturday afternoons, I would backload my carbs for the week and the results for me have been fantastic. (Quick note on supplements: I only supplement with SFH protein, fish oil, and caffeine). At that time, I was only doing 1-2 CrossFit workouts a week and started focusing on skills: gymnastics, weightlifting, and mobility. Most of my time 'exercising' consisted of half a dozen to a dozen short 10-15 minute skill sessions throughout the day wherein I would simply play and have fun with something I wanted to work on, be it handstands, empty bar weightlifting skill work, or dynamic stretching. As the year started coming to a close, I decided to challenge myself by adding 100 push-ups and 100 strict pull-ups a day for a month. It was hard (especially when I missed a day and had to make up those push-ups and pull-ups the next day!), but I finished it and that was when I realized if I could do that, I could do anything. I began working out 2-3 times a week along with my skill work and lots of prehab type accessory work. I'm sure you've all seen me with five pound plates doing shoulder mobility work throughout the day. Even with those small plates, my upper body strength, resiliency, and mobility skyrocketed from good to great and made pretty much everything else a lot easier. In December, I upped my CF818 workouts to 3-4 times a week and started squatting 2-3x per week and pressing 2x per week. The biggest thing was that I had prepared my body for the increased workload and I was recovering beautifully and handling the increased demand without feeling like I was exhausted or on the verge of injury. No lingering soreness other than the occasional DOMS, no nagging injuries. I continued to be a fanatic with my accessory, mobility, and skill work. As you may have noticed, our programming has steadily evolved. Armen has spent a lot of his time developing and tweaking a programming template that will give all of you the best bang for your buck. I believe strongly that his programming is on par with anyone's when it comes to general physical preparedness, and it's being born out by this relatively old man's performances on workouts. My goal? To better myself a little bit every single day. Your coaches are here to help you reach all of your goals, so if you want to talk further about your own progress and the things you wish to achieve, we're just an email away! Talk to us! Tomorrow is another NLI competition and we've got nine members from our gym participating. If you want to have a good time and see a great fitness competition while supporting your CF818 community, definitely check it out!

Me and the Hammer after a recent workout. Even the nail wins one every now and then!